Letters: Why would tax cuts work this time?

Whether it’s managing the debt ceiling or avoiding the “fiscal cliff,” current political-economic leaders hold working class Americans hostage. I think the “children” who are endangered are today’s retirees whose future was compromised long ago. Here is why.

During the turn of the last century, bankers and industrialists schemed to re-instate the federal income tax for “working” Americans. They succeeded in 1913 under the shroud of an income tax (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/1913.pdf) that was only for those making over $75,000 if single and $100,000 for a married couple (in 2012 dollars). See http://www.minneapolisfed.org/index.cfm.

During the Harding and Coolidge presidential administrations of the 1920s, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon cut tax rates for the wealthy four times. Mellon argued that lower rates would spur economic growth. America’s Great Depression began a year after the fourth cut. The American economy spiraled downward for the next 20 years.

By the mid-1960s, senior management officials, CEOs, etc., earned 20 times the income of their average worker.

That disparity of wealth between average workers and senior management was greatly amplified with the advent of deregulation and a revised income tax code during the 1980s. Today, banking and big corporate CEOs and other senior management officers are annually earning up to 250 times the income of their average worker.

In this century, the stock crash of 2000 witnessed the devaluation of tech companies by 80 percent. Corporations on the Dow, S&P and Russell indexes saw their value plummet by half or more. In 2001, like Mellon, President G.W. Bush introduced a tax cut to spur economic growth. However, that “growth” was limited to the short-lived construction industry bubble. For all else, the Bush tax cuts didn’t work, as borrowed money was used to fund two wars.

So, I have some questions.

If reducing tax rates failed during the 1920s and the Bush tax cuts didn’t work in the 21st century’s first decade, why do Republicans like Ronald Reagan/Jack Abramoff protégé Grover Norquist, and Dave Koch protégé Chris Christie, still believe that tax cuts for the wealthy will work now?

Must our current federal and state, super-wealthy, political-economic leaders dangle America over the “fiscal cliff” at the expense of the average working-class Americans?Most importantly, what should the average working class American do when their elections are financed with exorbitant secret money and rigged (gerrymandered) legislative districts?